Group Therapy Salaries and Pay

A group therapists salary is difficult to pin down accurately as so many different factors can influence it. The group therapist, like many other professional degrees, has a number of options on how to use his degree and thereby a number of different ways to get paid. Among those options are going the private route through an existing corporation, going the non-profit route through a charitable organization or staring your own private practice. All of these things will yield different kinds of salary ranges depending on where you live in the country as well. A group therapist at a small hospital in rural Pennsylvania is not going to make the same amount as a group therapist in one of the greatest hospitals in the world in New York City.

A group therapist working for a hospital is going to be granted a base salary based upon his ranking in the hospital food chain. Just as there are rankings in any corporation to designate experience and skillset, there are rankings among professionals in a hospital as well. The first level of group therapist does not pay as well, obviously, as the upper levels. The jump between some of these levels can vary significantly as well. There are some hospitals in the country that will hire you at a very low base rate with the hopes that they will really have an opportunity to test your mettle before promoting you and paying you very well. Similarly, there are hospitals that may want to entice new graduates and pay a great base salary without ever offering any real room for advancement.

Working through a non-profit organization is always the least lucrative way to use your graduate degree. This is not to say that it is the least rewarding. Working for charitable organizations always looks good on anyone’s resume and may lead to further opportunities in the future. Not to mention that the government offers many programs to promote people who offer their skills to charitable goals rather than devoting themselves to the private sector.

The route that will provide the group therapist with the possibility of the most and the least money in the long run would be to start one’s own private practice. Just as starting any business, there must be a market for the product being provided. Many group therapists try to start their own practices without enough clients to fill their schedules and then have to close their doors as a result. For those group therapists who are a bit more established though, this can be a great route to providing oneself with the most money and freedom in your career. Just be wary of taking that risk too soon, as it is difficult to make any sort of real money without the clientele and the reputation to back up your work first.

Your income matters depending on location

The other most important aspect of any group therapists salary is where he or she is practicing. The average group therapist salary in smaller areas with less robust economies will inevitably pay you less for your work. Along a similar train of thought, the bigger cities will then pay you much more. The other aspect that must be considered, as with any job, is how much it costs to live in the area that you will be working. That gap between the cost to live and how much you get paid will always be your true salary rather than the gross salary figure.